Alastair Cook
Alastair Nathan Cook born 25 December, 1984 in Gloucester) is an England cricketer, a left-handed batsman, who currently plays domestic cricket for Essex and test and one-day cricket for England. On 9 June 2007 Cook became the first Englishman to score six centuries before his 23rd birthday and on 27 July 2007 became the youngest England batsman to reach 1500 Test runs. He has scored centuries in his first Test matches against India, Pakistan and the West Indies. Biography Cook showed early signs of promise while a choirboy at St. Paul's Cathedral. In fact in one match against Westminster Abbey he scored 110 of the 127 runs St. Paul's scored, this being in a 20 over match. During this time he also played for London schools and had trials for the England youth set up. Cook was educated at Bedford School where he broke records at will with his classy batting. He first played for the school First XI as a first year. When the MCC were a man short for their game against the school, Cook was drafted in - he scored an unbeaten century against the 1st XI and was in the 1st XI for the next five years. In 2003, he made 1,287 runs for the school, at a batting average of 160.87 - a school record number of runs. He made his first-class debut at the end of 2003 against Nottinghamshire. Cook has been marked for stardom and potential greatness by Derek Randall (coach at Bedford) and Graham Gooch (coach at Essex), as well as drawing effusive praise from the ex-director of the ECB National Academy, Rod Marsh. Also as a youngster he played for the village team Maldon Cricket Club where he was very impressive. In 2004 Cook was captain of England's Under-19 team for the World Cup, during the tournament he scored consecutive centuries as England reached the semi-finals. He made his maiden first-class century against Leicestershire in May 2004. At the beginning of the 2005 season, whilst playing for the MCC, he scored another century, though this time the opponents were the reigning County Champions, Warwickshire, and the setting was Lord's. In 2005, Cook had an excellent season for Essex, with a first-class batting average of 52.35 including five centuries and a top score of 195. He also scored 214 in a two-day warm up match against the Australian touring side in September 2005. In August 2005 he was voted Young Cricketer of the Year by the Cricket Writers' Club, and was named Professional Cricketers' Association Young Player of the Year 2005. International career England 2006 Season Cook was included in the ECB National Academy in the winter of 2005-06, but was called up to the England squad touring Pakistan when the captain, Michael Vaughan, was injured. He was named in the England A team to play in the West Indies, but was called up again to the England squad touring India in February 2006 after an injury to Vaughan and Marcus Trescothick's departure from the tour. He was one of three cricketers making their England Test debuts on 1 March 2006 in the first Test against India in Nagpur. Playing as an opening batsman, Cook made 60 in his first innings and 104 not out in his second, becoming the sixteenth English batsman to score a century on Test debut. Cook played his first home Test match against Sri Lanka on 11 May, again replacing the injured Michael Vaughan. In England's one innings he scored 89, while also dropping two catches in a game where England dropped nine, to draw against Sri Lanka, he ended the series with an average of 43 with the bat. He made his One-day International debut against Sri Lanka at Old Trafford, scoring 39, in the next ODI at Leeds he made 41, both these matches were lost. In the next Test series against Pakistan he made a century at Lord's in the first Test scoring 105 off 279 balls. He followed that up in the next Test at Old Trafford with his third Test century in England's first innings. He made 127 runs off 260 deliveries before being dismissed lbw to Umar Gul. This innings surpassed his previous best of 105 which he made in the previous Test. On the occasion of each of those first three centuries, Paul Collingwood had been at the other end. His tally of 403 runs in the series was only eclipsed by captain Andrew Strauss. At the end of the season he was again awarded the Young Player of the Year award. In the one day series that followed he failed to play and wasn't picked in the squad for the 2006 Champions Trophy, with allrounders Rikki Clarke, Jamie Dalrymple and Michael Yardy and opener Ed Joyce preferred. He was named as a member of the Ashes tour party announced on 12 September 2006. When Marcus Trescothick pulled out of the tour party for personal reasons, Cook was an immediate choice to replace him as opener alongside Andrew Strauss. In the third Ashes Test at the WACA Oval in Perth, he scored his first Ashes century in the 2nd innings to take the 3rd Test into the fifth day when it seemed that Australia would reclaim the Ashes by the end of the 4th day. He scored 116 from 288 balls before being caught by Adam Gilchrist off Glenn McGrath, having occupied the crease for over 6 hours. This was his fourth Test century before turning 22, no England player had scored more than two. On 28 December 2006 in Melbourne, Cook scored his thousandth Test run and in doing so joined Mark Taylor as the only other player in Test history to score 1000 runs in his maiden year. 2007 Season Cook was made captain of the MCC versus Sussex in the county season opener, he scored a century in the 1st innings. He scored centuries against Derbyshire and Northamptonshire before joining up with England. In the 1st Test against the West Indies at Lord's Cook hit a century on the 1st day making 105 before falling early on the second day. Along with Ian Bell, Paul Collingwood and Matt Prior they became the first four batsmen for England since 1938 to score a hundred each in the same Test innings. In the second innings, he hit 65 runs. In the third Test at Old Trafford Cook followed his 60 in the first innings with his sixth test century in the second, scoring 106. Cook was chosen in the 14-man squad for the first four One Day Internationals in the seven match series against India. Although some commentators had suggested that one of Ian Bell or Cook should be dropped to allow Owais Shah to play, both were favoured and responded with maiden ODI centuries. Cook opened with Matt Prior, starting slowly, reaching his first half century in ODIs off 74 balls, before going to make a century off 122 deliveries. 2008 Season Achievements Awards *NBC Denis Compton Award 2003 *NBC Denis Compton Award 2004 *NBC Denis Compton Award 2005 *NBC Denis Compton Award 2006 *PCA Young Cricketer of the Year 2005 *PCA Young Cricketer of the Year 2006 Category:English players Category:English Test players Category:English ODI players Category:English Twenty20 International players Category:Essex players Category:England's Captains